The telecom provider leveraged its partnerships with Canadian NHL clubs that made the 2010 playoffs by featuring a rinkside dasherboard that displayed the terminology "La Vie est Bell" (meaning Life is Good in French) and accompanied the phrase with a man's giant smiling face that grew more and more facial hair each game and each round. The signage literally grew hair during the game!

Although there wasn't a direct tie-in, the dasherboard served as a tremendous way to drive buzz for the Bell Canada brand throughout the NHL playoffs, when fan affinity reaches its peak. The campaign tied in nicely with the famous playoff beard theme throughout the playoffs and kept many fans guessing. This would be a PERFECT tactic to leverage partners like Gillette, Nivea, Schick, etc.

As reported on ThePensBlog.com, here is a visual depiction of Bell Canada's dasherboard signage literaly growing facial hair throughout the game:

A special thanks to Jeff Snyder for his insights and contributions to this column... Best wishes Jeff!

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